There is no doubt that the previous 100 years has changed the manner in which individuals travel from one place to another. Early in the 20th century, most individuals remained close to where they worked and lived. Motor vehicles were rare and most people traveled in a limited area using horse drawn carriages. The advent of the use of internal combustion engines to power vehicles, allowed individuals to live further from their place of employment as well as to travel more extensively. Additionally, the advent of the internal combustion engine changed the manner in which goods were transported from one place to another. Increasingly, the use of large commercial trucks has supplanted railroads as the main manner in which goods are transported from one location to a second location. It is obvious that one of the reasons for this transformation is the fact that railroads are constricted to the routes they may travel, whereas large commercial vehicles would use the myriad number of highways to travel from one location to a second, remote location.
Initially, the rather large side and rear surfaces of these commercial vehicles were devoid of any indicia, save perhaps the name of the transport company. Recently, the owners of these transport companies have realized that advertising on the side of these vehicles would act as another source of revenue. Although roadside billboards have long been in use, the immobility of this advertising venue often limited its effectiveness. Recently, advertisements have been directly affixed to the sides and rear of commercial vehicles, allowing the advertisement to traverse the nation's highways while goods provided therein were shipped to their final destination. Additionally, the routes of these vehicles would not only be mandated based upon a route taken to deliver the goods, the route itself could be used to more effectively advertise particular goods or services.
Recently, static advertisements provided on the sides of commercial or other vehicles has been introduced to provide a better way of advertising a product. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,892, issued to Filippakis, discloses a scrolling display sign used for vehicles, such as a taxi cab illustrated in FIG. 1. The display sign includes an automatic timer delay means for the intermittent stopping of the message for viewing, and the automatic scrolling of the message to display a subsequent message after a given elapsed period of time. An intermittent timer device is connected to motorized reels in order to provide for the advance of a strip to display a new message or design. The intermittent timer device provides for the adjustability of a pause time, allowing viewers to read or absorb the message displayed on the display sign.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,441, issued to Crivelli et al, discloses a device for displaying a set of various flexible posters. A programmable control assembly sends signals to a set of motors so that varying display cycles for different posters can be maintained. Each poster can be assigned a frequency and display time which can be modified over time. The entire device can be placed on a vehicle, such as illustrated in FIG. 9.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,214, issued to Peeters, discloses a drive control and interface apparatus for an advertising display. The apparatus includes a microprocessor having a programmed memory connected to a motor for changing the image displayed after a corresponding predetermined period of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,330, issued to Cohen, discusses a mobile display system comprising an externally viewable display panel and a programmable controller. The controller ascertains the display location and generates a publicly viewable message pursuant to a schedule which includes a date, time of day and display duration.
While the above-listed U.S. patents describe systems for providing a movable sign attached to a vehicle, none of these references describe a system in which the movement of the vehicle would determine, at least in part, the manner in which a movable advertisement would scroll across the side or rear of the vehicle.